Terrier Rules, Terriers Rule

Terriers Rule,

There are various ways to grade out a boat's performance at a regatta in addition to the finishing score. Since we try to play the consistency game in college sailing then it makes sense to grade our consistency and learn to improve upon it through sound values. Here's one of my methods of grading out performance, obviously not the only one.

Line score:
18-14-1-5-9-9B

-The first number represents the fleet size
-The second number, races sailed
-The third is the number of first place finishes
-The fourth is the number of top fives
-The fifth is how many single digit scores
-The last is the final divisional finish

You'll notice what's omitted is the level of the regatta. That's fine. I'm grading sailors based on the regatta I sent them to. If they grade out high, then maybe they've proved they're ready for stronger competition, unless of course they're already sailing at the top.

You need to know the fleet size and races sailed to base the numbers. Races won means very little but it must be noted. Knowing you can win is a motivational tool but a double edged sword. If you play for it too hard, you may lose your consistency card (you know that "win the battle, lose the war" rot-rot). You could reach every single goal you ever wanted to in college sailing without ever winning a single race (except the goal of winning a
race). The bullets may be the balls but the full body of work gets the ca-ching and the cha-cha-cha. The goal is to grade out 50/90 in the four and five slots and use that consistency to fine tune and improve. 50/90 who-see what-sees? It's a percentage, the accepted level of consistency we need to favorably compete. You're looking to place top five in 50% of the races sailed and top nine in 90% of the races. Do so, and you've had a productive regatta. In the example above, we're a little shy of our goals and beat only half the fleet. You want to beat at least two-thirds of the fleet.

Of course we are always trying to do our best and our boat handling and boat speed have a lot to do with that. But then again, not necessarily a lot. Whether it's here and now, or in the hopeful near future, you will be able to challenge the top sailor's in physical skills. Perhaps because of the level of competition at that particular regatta, or perhaps at the highest level of competition. Either way, a whole lot of sailing is done with your mind and the decision making process can be clouded if you've set up the wrong goals or choose the wrong path to get to the right goals.

Like Cool Hand Luke, you have to "get your mind right" (great movie, you gotta see it. Though he never did get his mind right). You have to have the confidence to challenge the competition but you can't be doing the all or nuttin' routine all the time. You pull that out sparingly. You have to weigh the odds and assess the risk factors. You need to be thinking in terms of solid consistency towards the 50/90 plan. Let's take starts for instance. As much as you want to win every one of them, it's the losing of them that puts a dent into the consistency bus. If you've got bad air and are forced to tack and duck, drive down, or sit in gas for awhile, you may be putting yourself in a valley far deeper than the height of the mountaintop you tried to scale. Read the fleet and make compromises when the traffic gets heavy and the risks get high. Front row, clear air is the first order of business, the rest is gravy. You can miss the gravy once in a while if it means dessert often.

No difference on beats. You can play the high risk game, or have the patience and confidence to pick your spots better and take smaller gains along the way. Typically the biggest gains also offer the largest losses because large chunks are gained or lost often through fleet separation, or "lateral separation". If you're splitting with the fleet or pack just to gain separation, it better be on a mild level, unless the breeze clearly indicates a change in your favor. But if it's so clear, the fleet or pack wouldn't let you separate too much anyway. Let's face it, anytime you've got big lateral separation, you're in super high risk mode and that's done out of some form of desperation, knowingly or unknowingly (folks with big leads never have big lateral separation because they know to consolidate it). The first order of business on beats is to determine the path you would helm your boat, in the absence of others, to sail the shortest distance and the quickest route to the mark. That's hard in itself but it doesn't get any easier by bailing out and sailing to places other boats aren't, in hopes that they are wrong in their calculations. Expect the top of the fleet to be sailing the lifted tack the majority of the time (or sailing a square breeze to the next shift). It's lousy percentages to think otherwise but of course it happens. If you're clear minded and sure, well do what you need to do but poor positioning doesn't give you a license to sail a slow boat to China in the quest for shangri-la. Clear your air or get a little separation but get back on track, don't compound mistakes by going the high risk route and pushing the extremes. You're not going to win every race but can you get to that first goal of a single digit, can you grind it to a fiver or close? Can you keep those diggers in check? Curb the urge to take the not-so-flexible flyer to the corner or hit the long lay-line (don't hit the beach until after the races man). Stay out of the port tack coffin corner at the top of the beat in heavy traffic. Don't get your hand caught in the cookie jar and end up eating donuts. Don't pull yourself completely out of phase in the name of clearing your air.
Go to the buoy g damn it. That's why they put it there.

Think towards the goal of placing top five half the time, and top half all the time.
From there you can elevate your goals.


BC Sucks